Porous materials are widely used in biomedical and industrial applications. In the biomedical field, porous materials have been used as scaffolds (templates) for tissue engineering/regeneration, wound dressings, drug release matrices, membranes for separations and filtration, absorbents and hemostatic devices, among many others.
Despite their extensive use, the development of porous materials has been affected due to the difficulty of making an article porous and keeping it so while providing the material (article) with adequate strength. For example, porous polymer materials have been used as scaffolds for cell incorporation, proliferation and tissue regeneration in aqueous environments (such as in a tissue culture medium, or implanted inside a human or animal body). Yet, such porous polymers must also possess sufficient mechanical strength to withstand anatomical pressures and deformations, and also be capable of maintaining their structure and function when undergoing various changes (for example, mechanical or environmental changes).
A need exists for techniques for creating and controlling porosity in materials to obtain a less porous material than the one obtained by traditional methods. Also needed are methods of forming a porous material with a modified, interconnected porosity that renders the material sufficiently strong and substantially stable in a predetermined environment. Also needed is an implant that is at least partially porous to provide a scaffold for bone cells to grow into, but is also strong enough to withstand fabrication processes such as machining and/or molding, among many others.